Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Brave New World..... of Retirement

Is it vacation if you don't have to go back to work? When we walk off that plane, gather our luggage, find our car, and drive home, but Don doesn't go back to work on Monday - was it a vacation?

Weird, very weird this new life we've just embarked on. Deep, crazy, flying around my head thoughts about it all - and not at all figured out yet.

I am now the owner of a husband who no longer has an office, or blackberry, or email address, or company car. He's all mine, whether I'm ready for it or not.

He may be thinking he's the owner of a wife who has a cell phone, a car she's used to driving when she pleases, two email addresses, girlfriends, and stuff to do. Wonder what he's thinking about all that?!

I've joined the ranks of women who take their husbands grocery shopping, and neither one of us is sure what we think about that.

I've joined the ranks of women who wake up because the room grew light and I look over and he's lying there too, and we just stay there for a few minutes, talking about our day, then both of us head to the coffee pot, pour a cup and amble over to the sofa to read the paper, sip coffee, and I suspect one of us will say, "what do you have going on today?"

Weird, weird. Nice. Still weird. It's a new world - a little direction please, God?

8 comments:

I know. As thrilled as I am that Pat is retiring in 53 days, I sometimes wonder in the wee hours of the morning: 'What am I going to do with him around all day?' 'Am I going to have to change my plans?'

Well first of all ... welcome home. And next ... this is going to take some getting used to. Give yourselves some time. I imagine you will amble into a great new routine which will involve you grocery shopping without him along, because he is involved with his own pursuits. But it all takes some time.

Step one ... get yourselves to Texas :) That ought to make things seem like a vacation real quick.

As with any new venture, you learn how to retire as you go! You learn what works and what doesn't! And the word "routine" takes on a whole new meaning! But it's a wonderful stage of life - one to look forward to and enjoy immensely!

Good luck! My observation is that a man without something to do is not a good thing...hopefully your husband will gradually find his niche so that retirement will provide just the right amount of togetherness!

It really is such a huge change, it's naturally going to take a while to settle into this next stage of your lives together. But you know, I think once you've settled into your new home in Texas, you're both going to find yourselves with so many new things to do (gardening, remodeling, boating/fishing) that you'll be as busy as you ever were. The nice thing for Don is, he'll be busy doing things he really WANTS to do. I don't think he'll have much trouble getting used to that.

And if he's happy and busy, he won't have time to go grocery shopping with you. Unless he wants to, that is. Hey! Maybe he's always wanted to grocery shopping with you and you just didn't know it! :-)

Even good stress/change is stress/change. I know you'll both be fine, but as your girlfriends and sis before me have said...time is the key. I imagine he just needs to find his "sea-legs", and you need to feel okay about doing your own thing w/o him, just as you would if he were still working. Maybe...down the line, doing something together like tennis lessons or cooking lessons or something would be fun to try.

I'm getting used to something along these lines. For a brief (I hope) time, my hubs is working the afternoon/evening shift, so he can be more accessible to folks in China. It has a couple of nice things about it, but it's definitely a change for us.

Ha--I laugh as I read this--because-you are always busy! I have a feeling that sweet Don is going to fall right into "bev's busy world" and he is going to love it--or learn to love it! After all--it's mostly "fun" busy times--right!?! Plus--you will be at your lakehouse soon and then--OH then he will wish he didn't have so much to do ;). So enjoy these next few weeks when you wake up in the cold and the rain--because those days are few and far between here in Texas. If I were you two I would just have slumber parties with the Lacaria's everynight! But selfishly we can't wait for you two to move here so that we can all play and be busy together! Come home soon!!! See--we are already calling this your home ;) I know Dan can't wait!!